America at Home | 
 enlarge | Authors: Rick Smolan, Jennifer Erwitt
Publisher: Running Press
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $7.64
You Save: $32.36 (81%)
New (37) Used (23) from $6.66
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 95308
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.1
Dimensions (in): 11.9 x 9.9 x 1.4
ISBN: 0762434155
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.9300222
EAN: 9780762434152
ASIN: 0762434155
Publication Date: March 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
From the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller America 24/7. The week of September 17, 2007, marked the largest collaborative project in Internet history as 100 of the top photojournalists and millions of Americans documented the concept of home. The result—which included several million photos—is the most extensive record of American home life at the beginning of the 21st century. Now the powerhouse team of photographers and editors behind such bestselling titles as America 24/7 and the A Day in the Life of... series, present their latest collection of stunning personal and dramatic moments with this tie-in volume. America at Home aims to capture the emotions of home: the distinctive rituals, ceremonies, traditions, intimate moments, and all the myriad ways in which we work, play, learn, conduct our lives, and interact with friends, family members (and pets!) as we transform our houses (and apartments, trailers, etc.) into our homes. From McMansions to mobile homes, from tree houses to tenement slums, from ranches to old-age homes, the public was invited to help document the harmonies and paradoxes of home life across America over a single seven-day period... Highlights of this extraordinary project include: Massive grassroots online outreach: Americans were invited to simultaneously contribute their own images via a series of daily snapshots each day throughout the week. These shots covered topics such as: morning rush, what’s for dinner, and evening family rituals. Participants received daily emails with assignment instructions and also took general photos of what makes their home special. The public was able to sign in and upload them at www.MyAmericaAtHome.com. Multiple formats: An international team of leading magazine and newspaper photo editors edited all of the images, shot by both professionals and amateurs. The best images are woven together here with essays from leading writers in a unique and evocative coffee table book. In addition to the website, a TV show and photography exhibit are planned, with the help (and advertising) of major corporate sponsors such as IKEA, Google, HP’s Snapfish, and BabyCenter.com.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Places of the heart... August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have spent hours of enjoyment with this book....losing myself in faces and places unknown to me, yet at the same time hauntingly familiar. Rick Smolan has captured America at the very time when so many of us feel we are losing a connection to the vitality and promise of our country. But in every page and every essay, there are precious reminders of where our strength for the future lies...in America's people and in our homes an communities. Thank you, Rick Smolan.....
The Melting Pot Held Proud July 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have followed Rick Smolan's books for many years. This book touched me as few others have done. My Czech wife often seems to miss the diversity of the true America. I think all of us that have suffered these past 8 years where we might not have felt proud of our country can find something to feel proud of in this book. Here one can see so clearly and beautifully the diversity, the imagination, the love of family and friends that we who have grown up in America hold to be the true America. I shared this book with my wife who I think was quite surprised to see how many America's there are and to see what the true fabric of our society looks like beyond the slick magazines and endless TV glitz.
This is a book that you can give to someone who wants to see and better understand what America is truly about.
Absolutely Wonderful July 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A beautiful and elegant celebration of american life at home.
The authors also offer a great way to personalize the outer cover of the book with your own pictures. Very cool!! Customizing the cover makes a great conversation piece for your home as well as a great gift for friends and family.
America the beautiful July 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love the warmth of this book. I travel the world and am disturbed by the misconceptions many foreigners have of us here at home. (I can't say I blame them with the present administration having devastated our reputation and the relentless negative news reports.)
I would love to share this book with everyone abroad. It paints honest, touching, personal, everyman images of true Americans in all sorts of everyday activities in their homes.
Whether as a gift to people abroad or enjoyed with friends and family, this beautiful book presents who we are as everyday people. Honest, simple, good, loving Americans.
Thanks to Rick and Jennifer.
Review from Ryan Brenizer's Amazon Blog July 3, 2008
Review from Ryan Brenizer's Amazon Blog
America at Home
8:45 AM PDT, June 16, 2008, updated at 8:47 AM PDT, June 16, 2008
If millions of photographers around the world have a collective bias, it's this: The more interesting the better. Generally, that's a good thing -- the last thing the world needs are thousands of photo documentaries on "Things I Found in My Belly-Button." But if you're trying to document the way we live, it can be dangerously deceptive. Someone hundreds of years from now looking only at the professional photography of the era might assume we spent most of our time getting married and killing each other, but never went to the store or drove to work.
Photojournalist Rick Smolan tries to ameliorate this with "America at Home." Documenting as broad an idea as American domestic life is a daunting task, but Rick handles it adeptly, with a number of clever flourishes. His curating of the collection is very well-handled. It's unselfish, with his own work playing roles only where it fits best (and one of my favorite photos in the book, of a girl resting on the couch in the dramatic shadows of twilight, is his). With few exceptions, the photos that look best large are given the space to shine, and the photos that can convey messages in smaller sizes are paired up on a page, maximizing visual impact. The work itself tends to be both brilliant and familiar, trending toward subtle compositions that tell a story without being garish, appropriate for the topic.
Where it starts to get clever is in how the book is arranged. There are essays by writers such as Amy Tan and Terry Teachout breaking the book into chapters, but the photos are arranged around prominently displayed salient facts about American life, such as how much TV we watch a day or that the average American woman has one hour less free time per day than the average American man (I tried to hide that page from my wife).
It's a book that's supposed to teach us about us, and Rick wants readers to make it their own -- literally. The book has a companion Web site, MyAmericaAtHome.com, where you can order the book with your own photo as a customized cover. Since this is all about domestic life, I tried it out with a photo of my nephew at the ice cream shop instead of my professional work:
As you can see, the process is well-designed and easy to understand, showing how the final product will look with the headline and logo, as well as whether your photo will have enough resolution to make a good cover print. It's not only an easy process, but a bit addictive, so be careful lest you order 20 different copies of the same book.
This book represents an important topic well-handed, and a copy will be sure to grace my coffee table.
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